After two alpha releases, with really valuable feedback from testers,
I'm now releasing the beta release of PowerTOP 2.0 to go with the
release of kernel 2.6.37, which has some features that the new PowerTOP
will use.
The PowerTOP 2.0 release is effectively a complete rewrite of the
PowerTOP code base. The old 1.x code base had grown rather out of hand,
having gotten many new features after the very first PowerTOP release
without the foresight of a design that accommodated all these features.
This new 2.0 codebase extensively uses the kernel "perf" infrastructure
to give much more accurate data for the various reports; make sure to
enable this in your kernel configuration!
This increased accuracy and detail also required a redesigned, tab
based, user interface so that all the relevant pieces of the program
have all the screen real-estate they need.
Another major feature of the 2.0 code base is that the power behavior of
the various devices in the system is prominently tracked and displayed,
so that it's clear which devices are problematic in terms of power
behavior.
One of the more experimental features of the 2.0 code-base is a power
estimation engine, which, after calibration and getting sufficient
measurement points, is able to give an estimate of how much power
individual devices and processes in the system are consuming.
The reporting mode also has gotten a major overhaul, now producing an
HTML file that has all the information in one simple file, making it
easier to report power bugs with all relevant information right there.
The PowerTOP 2.0 code base needs a relatively new kernel to work
properly; the brand new 2.6.37 will of course be great, but 2.6.36 will
also work (with a few features silently absent).
You can download the beta release of PowerTOP 2.0 from
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/status/powertop/powertop-1.97.tar.bz2
or you can get the code from git at
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/status/powertop/powertop.git
Feedback and testing of this beta release is very welcome; I would
appreciate it is feedback email is sent to
the power-072X8lT/[email protected] or
[email protected] email lists.